Tag Archives: koch brothers

Begich hits the Koch brothers in first campaign ad

With the help of at least a half a dozen Alaskans, Sen. Mark Begich takes aim at the conservative Koch brothers in his first television ad of the race. The ad takes issue with the Koch brothers, who have spent roughly $1 million attacking Begich for hurting the economy, while Koch Industries announced the shuttering of a North Pole refinery, a mainstay of Alaska’s Interior economy.

Using a montage of six Alaskans, the ad accuses the brothers of contaminating the drinking water and laying off workers.

“The Koch brothers, the billionaire Koch brothers. I do not believe it. They come into our town, fire a refinery, just running it into the ground, leaving a mess. A lot of Alaskans are losing jobs and I’m definitely concerned about the drinking water. I don’t go down to tell them what to do, I expect them not to come up to Alaska to tell us what to do,” say a mix of Alaskans in the ads.

In a statement, the Koch brothers funded political group Americans for Prosperity fired back at Begich. “It’s disappointing that Senator Begich’s first message to Alaskans is a Washington-style, negative attack ad that does nothing to address any of the real concerns voters have about his record,” Alaska AFP spokeswoman Heidi Gay said.

“Senator Begich already misled Alaskans about ObamaCare; now he keeps changing his answer about supporting a carbon tax. Although he has tried recently to distance himself from past support, even Politifact concluded he would be a ‘maybe’ on a carbon tax vote. He has given a different answer every time he has been asked about it.”

AFP has repeatedly claimed that Begich supports a carbon tax. Begich has repeatedly said that he doesn’t. Begich did however sign a 2010 letter written to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid that called for “making polluters pay through a price on greenhouse gas emissions,” in order to address climate change.

A carbon tax is one way to make polluters pay. There are other ways, however, as Begich has pointed out.

GOP candidate Dan Sullivan isn’t buying it. His campaign called Begich’s denial of such support an “election day conversion.”

None of the three GOP candidates–Sullivan, Mead Treadwell, or Joe Miller — have said anything about the closure of the refinery.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Koch brothers continue attack on Begich after North Pole refinery shutdown

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers’ funded political group, pulled a $100,000 ad buy against U.S. Sen. Mark Begich after it was announced that Koch Industries was closing the Flint Hills Refinery in North Pole Alaska earlier this month. Perhaps attacking Begich for hurting the economy after it announced it was shuttering a mainstay of Alaska’s Interior economy didn’t make for good optics.

The refinery has left about 300 households and businesses with tainted water, and a sulfolane plume that’s 3 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. About 80 people who worked at the refinery are losing their jobs, and other entities, including the Alaska Railroad, also relied heavily on the refinery and are now considering layoffs.

Apparently, AFP is counting on the short memory of Alaskans, because the ads are back. This one, like a prior ad, first goes after Begich on healthcare and then jumps into the meat: his alleged support of a carbon tax. According to AFP, such a tax would cost the average family $2,000 a year and cost thousands of Alaskans their jobs.

Let’s get this straight: Begich has said publicly that he opposes a carbon tax. He did, however, vote on a non-binding amendment that said if such a tax were passed, revenue from it would be “returned to the American people in the form of federal deficit reduction, reduced federal tax rates, cost savings or other direct benefits.” The vote would not have created or defeated a carbon tax. Begich also voted against an amendment that would have required a vote of three fifths of the Senate to approve a carbon tax. That, vote, however, was intended to send a message to Republicans about procedure. It was not about the carbon tax.

The one thing that appears to be true in this whole situation is that Flint Hills was repeatedly warned about the sulfolane plume throughout the years. It failed to do anything about it. Now, hundreds of North Pole residents can’t drink from their faucets and at least 80 people are out of a job. And it’s unclear if Flint Hills or the state will shoulder the costs of the cleanup.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

New attack ad: Alaska woman would have done it better

The New York Times is reporting that the woman who is attacking Sen. Mark Begich on healthcare in a Koch brothers’ funded commercial isn’t a real Alaskan. She is actually an actress who lives in Maryland, which likely came as a surprise to few who watched the ad. She simply didn’t have an Alaskan vibe. (Though I chickened out on saying so in my piece about the ad earlier today, lest she be a recent transplant who hadn’t yet shed her Outside suburban skin.)

The actress’s name is Connie Browman, and she has appeared in other commercials. Ironically, one of them touted the importance of regular mammograms. Under ObamaCare, the healthcare bill that Browman says in the commercial, among the 14 free preventative service benefits for women are mammograms.

“We don’t want to lose even one person to breast cancer. Which is why regular, digital mammogram screening is so important,” she tells the audience, using that same, earnest voice she used in the Alaska commercials. “Senator Begich didn’t listen. How can I ever trust him again?” she said, in the background the kind of kitchen that I want to set up camp in.

This is not to say that Begich shouldn’t in some part be held responsible for the mess that ObamaCare has become. It’s just that if you’re going to try to pass off a Marylander as an Alaskan in an attack ad, you should at least try to make her look a little cold, or forlorn, or tough, and always pretty, of course.

It’s a rookie mistake often made by heavy-footed Outside consultants who don’t understand the political landscape of Alaskans, say nothing of the kind of kitchen they cook in.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Sen. Begich, Koch brothers group in tussle over ads

Sen. Mark Begich and a Koch brothers’ funded group are in a battle over whether or not a television ad falsely characterizes Begich’s position on a carbon tax.

The American Energy Alliance, the political arm of the Institute for Energy Research, both of which are funded partly by the Koch brothers, launched an ad recently in Alaska that says that Begich is in support of a carbon tax, something that the AEA is staunchly opposed to.

Begich says he doesn’t support the tax, and now lawyers are involved.

Begich’s lawyer called on station managers to take the ads down, calling them “false and misleading.”

“For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station must immediately cease airing this advertisement,” Begich’s lawyer wrote to the station managers on Sept. 5.

According to the AEA, the station mangers reviewed the ads and declined to remove them.

Begich has said publicly that he opposes a carbon tax. He did, however, vote on a non-binding amendment that said if such a tax were passed, revenue from it would be “returned to the American people in the form of federal deficit reduction, reduced federal tax rates, cost savings or other direct benefits.”

The vote would not have created or defeated a carbon tax, Begich’s lawyer wrote.

However, the AEA says his vote was a vote for the tax. Further, Begich voted against an amendment that would have required a vote of three fifths of the Senate to approve a carbon tax.

“That you felt the need to attempt to suppress the advertisements with threats and intimidation from your lawyers rather than publicly disclaim your past support for a carbon tax is telling,” said President of AEA Tom Pyle in a scathing press release.

“The American Energy Alliance would welcome a public apology to your constituents for your earlier votes in support of carbon taxes and your pledge that going forward your voting record will match your rhetoric on this vitally important issue for Alaska’s economic well-being,” Pyle wrote.

There’s more than a year to go before the 2014 election. Expect much more of this in the future.

Below is the AEA press release in full:

WASHINGTON — The American Energy Alliance responded today to a series of letters from a Washington D.C. law firm representing Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) who complains that a current advertisement sponsored by AEA “mischaracterizes” the senator’s past support for carbon tax legislation and threatens legal action for the continued airing of the ads. On Sept. 5, 2013, attorneys with Perkins Coie, LLP, notified station managers in Alaska that continued airing of AEA’s ad, entitled “Games,” could be cause for “loss of [the] station’s license.” Attorneys for the American Energy Alliance responded to the charges, and the Alaska stations were satisfied that the AEA advertisement did not run afoul of federal laws that prohibit “false, misleading or deceptive advertising.” All Alaska stations continue to run the AEA ad.

In his response letter, AEA President Thomas Pyle addressed two primary claims made by Senator Begich’s attorneys and campaign staff, namely that Begich has not supported a carbon tax and that AEA represents outside interests interfering in the state.

“That you felt the need to attempt to suppress the advertisements with threats and intimidation from your lawyers rather than publicly disclaim your past support for a carbon tax is telling,” Pyle wrote. “The American Energy Alliance will continue our current advertising initiative to inform Alaskans . . . of the impacts of harmful energy policies emanating from Washington and the role you play in shaping them. Moreover, we will seek additional opportunities in the future to do the same.”

Pyle took issue with Begich’s characterization of AEA as an “outsider group,” noting the senator’s willingness to host other “outsiders” who are opposed to economic development in Alaska — so long as those “outsiders” were raising money for the Begich re-election effort.

“Your campaign hosted a recent fundraiser in Fairbanks, charging guests as much as $120 per person to meet Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), [who was there] to help raise money for the Alaska Democratic Party and Alaska’s junior senator . . . Your willingness to invite an ‘outsider’ like Senator Cantwell to help swell your campaign coffers, all the while knowing of her well-documented history of championing legislative efforts to limit the development of Alaska’s vast natural resources and drive up the cost of energy for your constituents, exposes the height of hypocrisy that corrodes our system of representative democracy and always, eventually returns to haunt public officials.”

Pyle pressed further: “You certainly know your record, Senator. And you certainly know that elected officials are held to account more for their recorded votes than for their campaign rhetoric or the threatening missives and petty litigious needles threaded by their Washington-based lawyers. In any event, your record stands, and Alaskans are better informed citizens when organizations like the American Energy Alliance remind them of it.”

Pyle’s letter concludes: “The American Energy Alliance would welcome a public apology to your constituents for your earlier votes in support of carbon taxes and your pledge that going forward your voting record will match your rhetoric on this vitally important issue for Alaska’s economic well-being. Be assured that we will not be intimidated into backing away from our mission to foster an informed electorate of the voting records of their elected officials and call for engaged democratic participation in the American political tradition.”

To read Pyle’s full letter to Begich, click here.

To read the threatening letter from Begich lawyers to Alaska TV stations, click here.

To read the response letter from AEA attorneys, click here.

To view the AEA carbon tax ad currently running in Alaska, click here.

To read the fact sheet supporting the AEA ad, click here.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com